Volume No. 32 Club Motto: “Pass It On” June 2013

Metro Area Personal Computer Club

Meet: 3rd Tuesday at Godfather’s Pizza — 30th & Bdwy. 7P.M. Co. Bluffs

Keyboard Symbols

Have you ever wondered how others often include some of those ‘not so easy characters’ in their email or letters?

Your computer ‘understands’ a lot more than you may be giving it credit for. Since it ‘thinks’ in numbers, it can in-terpret ‘character code’ simply by using your keyboard. Each “ALT + ####” produces the desired character. Give it a try.

Raspberry Pi was ‘on the menu’ for the evening’s demonstration.

No, not the edible type. David Ladd offered the demo showing some of the unique features of the ‘little giant’.

Even with a little glitch, (no audio), it was an educational demo. (Google ‘Raspberry Pi’ for more info).

David ‘warms-up’ for his demo before meeting began. Good job, David!

Words of Encouragement 1] Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble, but it is a "steering wheel" that directs the right path throughout the journey.

2] So why is a car's windshield so large and the rear view mirror so small? Because our PAST is not as important as our FUTURE. So, look ahead and move on.

3] Friendship is like a book. It takes years to write, but only a few minutes to burn.

4] All things in life are temporary. If going well, enjoy it, they will not last forever. If going wrong, don't worry, they can't last long either.

5] Old friends are gold! New friends are diamond! If you get a diamond, don't forget the gold! Be-cause to hold a diamond, you always need a base of gold!

6] Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, God smiles from above and says, "Relax, sweet-heart, it's just a bend, not the end!

7] When God solves your problems, you have faith in His abilities; when God doesn't solve your problems He has faith in your abilities.

8] A blind person asked St. Anthony: "Can there be anything worse than losing eye sight?" He re-plied: "Yes, losing your vision!"

9] When you pray for others God listens to you and blesses them and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you.

10] Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles, it takes away today’s peace.

Alternate ‘cures’ for many ailments Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly-even though the product was never advertised for this use.

Honey remedy for skin blemishes... Cover the blemish with a dab of honey and place a Band-Aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin sterile, and speeds healing. Works overnight.

Listerine therapy for toenail fungus: Get rid of unsightly toenail fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine Mouth-wash. The powerful antiseptic leaves your toenails looking healthy again.

Easy eyeglass protection... To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear Nail Polish to the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer... If menacing bees, wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can 't find the insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground instantly.

Smart splinter remover: Just pour a drop of Elmer 's Glue-All over the splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter sticks to the dried glue.

Hunt 's Tomato Paste boil cure... Cover the boil with Hunt 's Tomato Paste as a compress. The acids from the toma-toes soothe the pain and bring the boil to a head.

Balm for broken blisters... To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few drops of Listerine, a powerful antiseptic.

Vinegar to heal bruises... Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduc-es the blueness and speeds up the healing process.

Quaker Oats for fast pain relief... it 's not for breakfast any more! Mix 2 cups of Quaker Oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl and warm in the microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly, and apply the mixture to your hands for soothing relief from arthritis pain.

Virtual Machine(s) / Hardware Emulator(s)

What is a virtual machine you may ask? A virtual machine is machine which could range from any hard-ware device from gaming consoles to personal computers recreated inside the memory of a real desktop computer or other powerful device that can handle emulating the old hardware.

One question I was asked is why you would want to emulate something old that really no one would want to use in today’s world or care to use. Well here is an example of why you would: I have an old color comput-er game called Cave Walker I want to play. The old CoCo3 system, Multi Pack Interface, Floppy Drives, & hard drive(s) would take up far too much room compared to a desktop PC today. So I use a CoCo3 emulator to load the disk image and play the game on it which only exists inside my real PC. This only takes up the desktop space my real PC, though the only data that is actually saved is that of the disk image.

The next example is: Business man has some software that was custom built for his company. All the com-pany’s PC’s are running Windows 98. Some of the hardware is getting old and harder to maintain. The new hardware the business man wants to get uses Windows XP Pro. Based on his IT department the custom software will not work on Windows XP Pro. One person from the IT department brings up the idea of using a product called Virtual PC to create a virtual machine in a real machine that runs Windows 98, but the real computers will be using Windows XP Pro. That way the old custom built software can still be used inside the virtual machine while having that running on top of the new OS with the new hardware.

There are many uses for a virtual machine. These are just two examples. …. David Ladd

David Ladd did a fine job demonstrating the many uses one could put the little ‘Raspberry Pi” to, including turning various devices on/off, running a time lapse camera and many other useful duties. (Photos by Joe Cavallaro)

We were pleased to see our old friend and past member pay us a visit. Bruce (left) shares his lat-est project with Joe 3rd. Bruce designed software to use on his iPad showing some of his many ‘hits’ in his Cache Hunt, all over the area.

What is a Browser? Google Explains… by Craig Buckler

It’s a simple question: “What is a web browser?” Unfortunately, Google’s random survey in Times Square, New York, revealed that only 8% of people knew the answer. The remaining 92% of users either did not know or confused it with a search engine. Google had even more worrying concerns — the vast ma-jority of respondents had never heard of their Chrome browser.

This is a problem that directly affects web developers. We want people to use the latest browsers so we can implement new technologies and techniques without spending time coding around problems on older appli-cations. IE6 development is particularly problematical yet it retains 20% of the market 8 years after it’s ini-tial release. How can we encourage people to upgrade when the vast majority don’t know what we’re talk-ing about? Those users cannot possibly comprehend the benefits of newer browsers because they’re happy with their existing software.

There are deeper problems for Google. The company makes its money from search and online applications. As those systems become more sophisticated, they have become reliant on new technologies such as HTML5. Microsoft has made no firm commitment to HTML5 and, even if it is implemented, they are un-likely to provide support for their legacy browsers. Yet 65% of people continue to use Internet Explorer; they cannot run Google applications such as Wave.

Google is attacking the issue on a number of fronts. They are:

* dropping support for IE6 on sites such as YouTube

* creating IE plugins that add new technologies to older browsers, and

* launching a free operating system that offers a modern browser.

However, user education remains the biggest hurdle. Google has identified that users spend more time surf-ing the web than driving, but they are more likely to know their car’s make and model more than their browser. Few users realize they have a choice and Microsoft benefits from apathy and lethargy.

Raspberry Pi

This was David Ladd’s ‘introductory image’ as he projected it on our large screen for his demo.

The ‘Pi’ is about the size of a pkg. of cigarettes, and can be used for many interesting uses.

Minutes of May 21 Meeting Opening of Meeting

President, Joe Cavallaro called the meeting to order at 7 P.M. at Godfather’s Pizza, with only 13 mem-bers present, plus two guests. We were pleased to welcome past member, Bruce and Richard Hopp’s friend, Lin Stowell, both from Omaha. We invited each to become members.

Members IN Attendance

Instead of listing those members who did NOT attend, it was decided to list those who DID :

Members present were Amy Bogdanovich, Taylor Cavallaro, Joe Cavallaro III, Joe Cavallaro Sr, ,Lynn Fehr, Mary Alice Fehr, Dee Hindman, Kevin Holloway, Richard Hopp, David Ladd, Lem McIntosh, Wm. Pennington and Cheryle Pennington. That’s a total of less than half of our total membership! Where were those missing members?

Free Pizza

Drawing was held to award the free Pizza. Secretary, Lynn Fehr was the lucky winner.

Lynn stated, “It’s about time! I’ve never won the drawing before!” Congratulations, Lynn!

Raffle

Several more $5.00 tickets were sold toward the $50.00 Drawing. We need to sell 20 tickets in all.

Reading Reports

Treasurer, Mary Alice Fehr read the treasury report, followed by Secretary Lynn Fehr who read the past meeting (April 16th) minutes. Both accepted as read.

Annual Election

Ballots were presented to each voting member. Voting was by ‘Secret Ballot’. Kevin Holloway and Dee Hindman then tallied the votes. Results: The present officers retained their office. New (old) officers are: President Joe Cavallaro and Vice President Fred Veleba, Treasurer, Mary Alice Fehr and Secretary, Lynn Fehr.

Picnic/Auction Discussion

We discussed plans for the Annual Picnic. Mary Alice was to check availability of their Church facilities for a possible September booking. It was decided not to hold the usual Annual Auction, and that the Club would furnish fried chicken for the picnic and all members would bring their Pot Luck contribution.

Demo’s

David Ladd offered tonight’s demo, showing some possibilities with the little Raspberry Pi

June demo will be presented by Wm. Pennington, showing Power Point. July demo by Joe Cavallaro III, re-introducing Facebook, and August Demo by Fred Veleba demonstrating iMovie.

Stick-Around Drawing

Kevin Holloway was the winner of the ‘Stick-Around’ drawing. The amount was $13.00 split 50/50 be-tween Kevin and our Treasury, $6.50 each.

Adjourned

With no further business to conduct, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M.

(Minutes recorded and submitted by Secretary, Lynn Fehr—May 21, 2013)

Microsoft confirms Blue to be free for existing Windows 8 users

By Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft | May 14, 2013

Summary: Microsoft plans to make its first update to Windows 8, codenamed Blue, free to existing Windows 8 users, company officials have confirmed.

I've been blogging frequently about the upcoming major update to Windows 8. Here's what we know so far:

Fact:

It's called Windows 8.1 (Windows Blue was just Microsoft's internal codename).

It will be free to existing Windows 8 users.

It will be available as a "public preview" starting on June 26, 2013.

It will be available [as a full product] by the 2013 holiday season.

Rumor:

It will bring back the Start menu.

It will allow you to boot directly to the Desktop.

I'd also guess that the Windows 8.1 update for existing Windows 8 users will be available via the Windows Store

on or soon after the time Microsoft is rumored to release it to manufacturers which, according to several sources,

should be in August of this year.

You can read all the details in Mary Jo Foley's piece linked below. I highly recommend you follow her if you're

interested in keeping up with this topic.

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-confirms-blue-to-be-free-for-existing-windows-8-users-7000015358/